Google activating 500k handsets a day

Android mobile handsets are entering a new era of growth with confirmation that half a million are being activated by the search giant every day.

Google's mobile chief Andy Rubin tweeted the milestone earlier today, which represents a 100,000 increase on the 400,000 total revealed at the start of May.

Rubin added that activations are growing at 4.4 per cent a day.

These stats always cause some amusing bitching between Google and Apple, with the latter implying that some OEMs might inflate their numbers, and that OS upgrades are counted as new activations. Google denies this.